The present invention relates generally to protective barriers for parking lots and roadways and more particularly to devices, systems and methods for covering protective barriers such bollards with advertising or other graphical materials.
A bollard is a post that is generally made of concrete, steel, or other similar material that is placed at strategic locations at or around commercial properties to protect the properties from vehicular traffic. For example, bollards are placed at the front entrance areas of stores so that vehicular traffic will not be able to collide with the building structure or invade into pedestrian walkways. Bollards are often placed at drive-through facilities at banks, restaurants and the like to keep vehicles from running onto curbs, hitting buildings, or otherwise creating collision damage to property or pedestrians. Bollards of this type are generally round posts projecting upward from the ground and may be either buried in the ground or otherwise stably installed to give more than minimal resistance to vehicle traffic.
Bollards often times get scraped and scratched and need to be repaired and/or repainted in order to avoid becoming an eyesore. Bollard covers are known in the art to include a shield for protecting a bollard. Conventional bollard shields may be formed of a rigid material such as a metal or a plastic. Conventional bollard covers, or bollard shields, come in various colors and may include a color integral with the material of the shield, for example a molded plastic product, and thus when the shield is scratched, the exterior color remains the same. Bollard shields generally are constructed of a size to fit over conventional metal or concrete bollards and are held in place by a close fit between the bollard and the bollard cover.
One problem associated with conventional bollard covers is a lack of advertising material positioned on the bollard cover. In many applications, it may be desirable for a property owner, lessee, operator or other entity to use a bollard surface as an advertising display. However, conventional bollard covers are not suitable for direct application of advertising materials. Such application of advertising materials or other graphical materials directly onto conventional bollards or conventional bollard covers would add significant cost and manufacturing complexity, as the materials would need to be printed or painted directly onto each bollard or bollard cover. Additionally, if the conventional bollard or conventional bollard cover with advertising material printed thereon were to become damaged, the entire bollard or bollard cover would need to be repainted, reprinted or replaced, thereby adding significant cost when the underlying functionality of the bollard or bollard cover may not be impaired. Further, conventional bollards and conventional bollard covers include a relatively small diameter that does not provide an outer surface with adequate area for applying advertising materials or other graphical materials such as text, signage or logos. Advertising materials or graphical materials applied to such conventional bollards or bollard covers would be difficult to view.
What is needed, then, are bollard advertising devices, systems and methods that allow graphical materials such as advertisements, logos, color patterns and the like to be installed onto conventional bollards and bollard covers.